In My Humble Opinion: The movie Looper promised to deliver so much but unfortunately ended up letting me down in the end. Maybe it was all the hype surrounding the movie, but for once I’m going to ignore all that hype and good reviews, go out on a limb and say that the movie itself didn’t live up to either. That being said, I will admit the concept of the movie was interesting. I’m always a fan of the time travel genre and have reached a point where I accept that any movie dealing with said genre is going to have parts that are not only confusing, but make you question the validity of what has transpired in the first place. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a Looper whose job is to kill people who are sent back in time by the mob. (I won’t get into all the details or we’d be here all day) All loopers will eventually one day close their loop by killing their future selves. This might sound like a bad deal, but when a looper “closes his loop” he’s given a gold pay-day and sets out with the knowledge that he has the next 30 years of his life to live it up with the pay-day he’s just been given. Well apparently there is a new threat in the future named The Rainmaker (no it’s not Matt Damon) that is closing all the loops. Bruce Willis voluntarily comes back in time after his wife is killed to stop The Rainmaker from ever coming into existence, since he feels The Rainmaker is responsible for his wife’s death. Anyway, like I said the concept of the movie was a fresh take on the genre and the movie itself started off strong. There were a few things however that really kind of bothered me throughout the movie. I’ll start off small and build from there

1. The makers of the movie didn’t feel that Joseph Gordon-Levitt looked enough like a younger Bruce Willis so they had make-up artists create prosthetics so that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would look more like a younger Bruce Willis. Really? We’re already dealing with a time travel plot and a telekinetic subplot (this revolves around The Rainmaker) so my suspension of disbelief is already in full throttle. Asking me to believe that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a younger Bruce Willis wouldn’t be too hard for me to believe…so you can drop the weird-looking prosthetics.

2. Like I said, the first part of the movie was pretty exciting. Joseph Gordon-Levitt offers up a narration of how the world has changed, time travel has been invented, a certain amount of the population are now telekinetic, etc. The first half of the movie really was strong and I thought it was going in a good direction. But when Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets to the farmhouse it’s just downhill from there. The way they have Joseph Gordon-Levitt reveal himself to Emily Blunt is ridiculous. She and her son live on a farm out in the middle of nowhere. It’s night-time and Emily Blunt runs out with a shotgun to investigate a noise in the fields…suspension builds and she can’t bring herself to shoot whatever is coming towards her. Joseph Gordon-Levitt decides to reveal himself, come out and protect her from…wait for it…a deaf-mute that is traveling the farmlands looking for money. Again, really? In the middle of nowhere, there is this Lenny-esque deaf-mute out looking for George and his rabbits or something. Surely with the creativity lended to the overall plot a better way of having these two characters meet could have been arranged. Not to mention, I still don’t understand Emily Blunt chopping away at that big ass tree stump on the farm?

3. The ending…I was really expecting a lot more. It’s that feeling you get now when you watch an M. Night Shyamalan movie and are waiting for that “holy shit” twist or reveal at the end. It’s also that feeling you get now when you watch an M. Night Shyamalan movie and once that “holy shit” twist or reveal is shown, you say to yourself, “Really…that’s it? I was expecting so much more.” I won’t give away the entire ending because if you haven’t seen the movie I don’t want to ruin it for you, but seriously I wasn’t exactly blown away when I watched it. I’m sure there are those of you out there that will argue about the ending and that it makes you think back to earlier in the movie and brings up this or that, but for me it really was underwhelming.

All this being said, Rian Johnson had a fresh idea for the overall plot of the movie, which is rare nowadays. I would only recommend that in the future he focus more clearly on the main plot of the movie as opposed to trying to prove how creative he can be. In doing so, he offers no real characters that you pull for as a viewer. Even the main character Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays isn’t someone you can really identify with. Anyway, hopefully Rian Johnson gives it a try on another Science Fiction movie because the genre could use creative people such as Rian Johnson.

In My Humble Opinion: These four words are how I start generally every entry for this site. I heard through the grapevine that Denzel Washington checked out the site. I asked him, “Well if you like the site, what four words do I start every entry with?” He nailed it!!!!

In My Humble Opinion: Why the hell does Hollywood feel the need to remake such a cult classic like Evil Dead? I know the remake was announced long ago and I was hesitant to comment on it because I haven’t see the original. That’s right I will be up and front and say I have not seen the original Evil Dead 1 or 2…yet; I have seen Army of Darkness though and also know what a dedicated following all three films in the franchise have gained. The films launched the careers of Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi and have gone on to have one of the biggest cult followings in film history…isn’t that enough? I don’t know if Hollywood saw the moderate success of The Cabin In The Woods and decided, well why don’t we just remake one that we know already has a strong fan base. Hopefully I’m not of the mark with this one and if there are any fans out there that really like the original trilogy, please let me know if you are excited about the remake being done or are as appalled as I am that Hollywood can’t come up with any fresh ideas. Hell, when they remade The Karate Kid (yeah it did well, and it wasn’t that bad of a movie) but why call it The Karate Kid? It didn’t follow any of the plot points from the original movie except for the “bullying” aspect, and on top of that, Jayden Smith didn’t learn Karate, he learned Kung-Fu. Why not just call it the Kung-Fu Kid and make it its own stand alone film? Anyway, I’m surprised that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell even signed on as producers for the remake. Then again I’m sure it will be a nice pay-day for them so you can’t blame them but so much. Oh well, maybe I will just make it a point when the re-make comes out to have a special screening of the original film somewhere, maybe even a double feature of Evil Dead 1 & 2.

In My Humble Opinion: Bradley Cooper would probably make a pretty decent Flash but why not give someone else a try? I read that Bradley Cooper was one of the front-runners to play The Flash/Barry Allen in a movie that’s still in the works (I won’t touch on the fact that he was also rumored to portray Eric Draven in The Crow remake that’s also in the works). Other names floated for the role of The Flash were Chris Pine, Matthew Fox and a few others. Bradley Cooper, like I said has the potential to do a decent job. I can see him embodying the bumbling lab geek Barry Allen and filling out the red suit of The Flash with the right amount of balance. Unfortunately, casting him as the main character is proof that Hollywood has become more concerned with the business side of things than the creative side. Bradley Cooper is now a huge star thanks to his roles in Wedding Crashers, The A-Team and of course The Hangover franchise, but why does Hollywood feel the need to get a huge star to fill the role of The Flash? I guess it hopes the name Bradley Cooper alone will bring in the fans, but why not go with someone a little less well-known? Who might I be referring to? Well for the longest time I was kind of hoping Ryan Reynolds (before he shot to superstardom too) would be tapped to fill the role, but given the fact that he’s already played The Green Lantern and Deadpool leaves little chance for that. Side Note: The writers behind The Green Lantern movie are the ones reportedly penning the script for The Flash…let’s hope they learned their lessons with The Green Lantern huh? One name I would like to throw out there is Matt Bomer (that’s Bomer, not Boner…yeah they messed it up on The Today Show one time) You probably recognize him from the USA show White Collar and small parts in the movies In Time and Magic Mike. I think he has the right physique and acting ability to make the role his own. But anyway, whoever they get to play Barry Allen/The Flash for the movie (let my opinion be heard!) let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope they get Mark Hamill to come back and reprise his role as The Trickster haha.